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Origin and history

The Church of the Sacred Hearts of Rennes is a Catholic building built in the early twentieth century, located in the Villeneuve district, south of the city. It is distinguished by its double word, dedicated to both the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sacred Heart of Mary, a rare feature in French churches. Originally, it was surrounded by a parish enclosure including a presbytery and a school, bounded by the streets Ginguene, Palissy, Berthelot and Villeneuve. This religious complex was integrated into a semi-rural environment, in the midst of urban transformation.

The construction of the church, entrusted to the architect Arthur Regnault, stale from 1908 to 1913, in a context marked by the increasing secularization of French society, illustrated by the 1905 Law on the Separation of Churches and the State. The bell tower was not completed until 1960, according to the plans of architects Derrush and Rual. The stained glass windows, originally made by Emmanuel Rault's Rennes workshop between 1925 and 1938, suffered heavy damage during the allied bombing on 8 March 1943. They were replaced in 1950 by creations by Gabriel Loire, master glassmaker of Chartres.

The church has benefited from recent restorations, notably thanks to a subscription of € 23,661 by the Heritage Foundation in 2011. In 2020, the former parish enclosure was transformed into a contemporary residence called the Cœur-Villeneuve, designed to harmonize with existing architecture, notably through the use of red shale reminiscent of the walls of the rectory. This project reflects modern heritage preservation issues while meeting contemporary urban needs.

The church windows, before their partial destruction, represented various holy figures, such as Saint Yves, Saint Bernadette or Saint Georges, testifying to the iconographic and artisanal richness of the building. Their replacement by Gabriel Loire marked a new stage in the artistic history of the place, linking Rennes to the glass tradition of Chartres. Today, the church remains a symbol of the religious and architectural heritage of Brittany.

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